Jon Arthur was the professional name of Jon Arthur Goerss. As Big Jon Arthur he was the host of the Saturday morning children's radio series, Big Jon and Sparkie. Sparkie, "the little elf from the land of make-believe, who wants more than anything else in the world to be a real boy,� was actually the recorded voice of Jon Arthur played at a fast speed.

From his home in Pittsburgh, Jon Arthur went to radio school and then began his broadcasting career at radio station WJLS (Beckley, West Virginia), signing on two weeks after the station went on the air in 1939. Arthur left Beckley for Ogdensburg, New York, and headed for the West Coast.